The transition from academy to the professional level is one of the pivotal key stages in the development of elite professional soccer players and our understanding of this process is incomplete (Mills et al. 2012). A comprehensive detailed assessment of elite youth players match performance is limited and a clear gap in the literature exists which has consequences for the development programs of academy players (Harley et al. 2010). Global positioning systems (GPS) have been developed for use within a sports context to measure distance and velocity, however the methods employed for determining accurate capture conditions has not been examined and rely solely on historical criteria established before its use in dynamic sports such as soccer. The studies contained in this thesis are designed to further examine how an increase understanding of the match demands of youth soccer through the use of GPS technology to allow the development of highly tailored training programs to maximise the development of youth players. In summary, the work undertaken from the studies in this thesis provides novel information in relation to the measuring of match performance when using GPS and the application of this information to the programming of training programmes with elite youth soccer players. It has also examined and validated the use of a simple field test to highlight bilateral lower limb imbalances and possible training programs to improve the bilateral ratio and to maximise the development of youth players.